New material cleans and splits waterResearchers at EPFL's Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering have developed a photocatalytic system based on a material in the class of metal-organic frameworks. (2018-11-05)

Solar minimum surprisingly constantUsing more than half a century of observations, Japanese astronomers have discovered that the microwaves coming from the Sun at the minimums of the past five solar cycles have been the same each time, despite large differences in the maximums of the cycles. (2017-11-16)

Record high photoconductivity for new metal-organic framework materialAn international team of scientists, from the University of Surrey, University of São Paulo (Brazil), the University of Warwick and the University of Grenoble-Alpes (France), has created a new metal-organic framework (MOF) that has shown record-high photo-conductivity levels for a material of its type. (2017-12-15)

New chemical method could revolutionize grapheneUniversity of Illinois at Chicago scientists have discovered a new chemical method that enables graphene to be incorporated into a wide range of applications while maintaining its ultra-fast electronics. (2017-06-14)

Theft behind Planet 9 in our solar systemThrough a computer-simulated study, astronomers at Lund University in Sweden show that it is highly likely that the so-called Planet 9 is an exoplanet. (2016-05-31)

Semiconductor breakthrough may be game-changer for organic solar cellsIn an advance that could push cheap, ubiquitous solar power closer to reality, University of Michigan researchers have found a way to coax electrons to travel much further than was previously thought possible in the materials often used for organic solar cells and other organic semiconductors. (2018-01-17)

Graphene from soybeansA breakthrough by CSIRO-led scientists has made the world's strongest material more commercially viable, thanks to the humble soybean. (2017-02-14)

From rocks in Colorado, evidence of a 'chaotic solar system'Plumbing a 90 million-year-old layer cake of sedimentary rock in Colorado, a team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Northwestern University has found evidence confirming a critical theory of how the planets in our solar system behave in their orbits around the sun. (2017-02-22)

Cooling, time in the dark preserve perovskite solar powerA new study has found both the cause and a solution for the pesky tendency of perovskite solar cells to degrade in sunlight, a research breakthrough potentially removing one roadblock to commercialization for this promising technology. (2016-05-17)

Thirteen ocean solutions for climate changeOver a dozen international researchers from the Ocean Solutions Initiative -- including scientists from the CNRS, IDDRI, and Sorbonne University -- have evaluated the potential of 13 ocean-based measures to counter climate change. (2018-10-04)

Eclipse season starts for NASA's SDOOn Sunday, Feb. 11, 2018, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, saw a total solar eclipse in space when Earth crossed its view of the sun. (2018-02-13)

Physics, photosynthesis and solar cellsA University of California, Riverside assistant professor has combined photosynthesis and physics to make a key discovery that could help make solar cells more efficient. (2016-11-30)

Two weeks in the life of a sunspotDuring its 13-day trip across the face of the sun, a sunspot recently put on a show for NASA's sun-watching satellites, producing several solar flares, a coronal mass ejection and a solar energetic particle event. (2017-08-04)

NASA moon data provides more accurate 2017 eclipse pathThanks to elevation data of the moon from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, coupled with detailed NASA topography data of Earth, we have the most accurate maps of the path of totality for any eclipse to date. (2017-01-05)

Best Science Podcasts 2019

SetbacksFailure can feel lonely and final. But can we learn from failure, even reframe it, to feel more like a temporary setback? This hour, TED speakers on changing a crushing defeat into a stepping stone. Guests include entrepreneur Leticia Gasca, psychology professor Alison Ledgerwood, astronomer Phil Plait, former professional athlete Charly Haversat, and UPS training manager Jon Bowers.

#524 The Human NetworkWhat does a network of humans look like and how does it work? How does information spread? How do decisions and opinions spread? What gets distorted as it moves through the network and why? This week we dig into the ins and outs of human networks with Matthew Jackson, Professor of Economics at Stanford University and author of the book "The Human Network: How Your Social Position Determines Your Power, Beliefs, and Behaviours".